Back in the basement!

No, we haven't quit working on the house. It just took awhile to finish up outside. That is my kitchen window. Dave decided to surprise me by putting up a couple of birdfeeders.

Just trying to give the house a homey touch. This is the back porch area.

We did get the garage moved. What a HUGE job!

Those cabinets are heavy. We moved one at a time, one day at a time. HEAVY I tell ya.

My little area in the garage. The bottom half. I'm still trying to talk him into the top half!

The siding is finished on the front porch. We're getting there.....little at a time. Still need to do the porch floors and columns.

But for now...we are back in the basement. This is O.S.B. It's heavy. We hauled in about 15 sheets of it to be put on the walls. We are only using drywall in the living area of the basement. The storage areas, pantry, and mechanical room will be O.S.B.

Which is made in the USA!

Cindy

Drainage Tiles

I realize the postings on this blog have been fewer lately. It does not mean we aren't working on the house. It just means that it is taking us awhile to do the same thing which makes the pics a bit boring. Right now we are still getting the outside ready for winter as it is fast approaching. Dave has been adding drainage tiles to the downspouts so the water will be directed away from the house. And he is digging by hand, of course. Is there any other way?

I think there are about five of these that need done. Plus, he is putting siding on the porches. We're not sure if Tyvek will hold up through two winters! He is close to finishing both, but the weather (rain) has put a stop to him working outside for awhile.

Cindy

Grass and gutters!

Look at all of this nice thick lush grass!

Remember the slats my Mom was painting in the last post? Or maybe two posts ago. Well there it is, covering up the big pipe coming out of the yard for the well pump.

Pretty cool garage sale find for 20 bills huh?

And the back porch,

now looks like this. (and my pictures will not move to the left so I'm just going to go with it)

Did you notice in the last picture, and this one, we have gutters! Gutters and grass.

Lots of both!

Cindy

Still painting

I've been painting again. I picked a color called Simplify Beige for the pantry. Here's why.
1) Mountain Air - my first choice, did not look good after I painted two walls with it.
2) We had a can of Simplify Beige at home from painting our hallway and stairway (at the house we live in now) so I would have some extra for touch up. As you can see by the little white dots, it's not easy to paint o.s.b. (a type of chipboard)
3) These walls are going to be covered with shelves, so you will not see much of the wall when it's all said and done. It's the pantry.
I also painted the

mechanical/electrical room.

I don't like painting behind stuff like this...

or this....but I did. (the white is primer - it is now gray. Serious Gray!)

I've decided...

I am not good

at picking out paint colors. I have about 20 of those little sample cans.

(Hey that kind of looks like Africa on the left! - Kind of...)

I've also decided I'm going to go with creamy colors on the walls...

and add color by painting furniture and cabinets with all of those little sample cans. And add more color with pillows, blankets, pictures and other fun stuff.

We hired someone last night to hang gutters, after several phone calls and four estimates.

Also, I went to our family reunion on Sunday and found out one of my cousins is taking HVAC classes at Ivy Tech in Kokomo. He said his class is looking for a project to install heating and air. Pick me pick me!!!

Cindy

Painting the West end of the house

As I was preparing to paint the side of the house, I looked down to see this gal/guy? Hmmm, whadayathink? Think it has a stinger? I don't see one, but I was careful not to step on it. This is NOT a honeybee, btw.


So, this is what I was painting. This side of the house will someday have a screened in room attached to it. And if we would have put siding on the house, we'd just have to take it off when we put on the room. So we went with something called T-1-11. It's a wood product and has to be preserved.

It has grooves in it, somewhat similar to what car siding would look like. We went back and forth all summer...paint...stain....paint...stain. Our neighbor, backhoe man, said for his wood on his house he put a mixture of half and half, linseed oil and turpentine. He explained that back in the day when contractors used to keep their wooden ladders in the back of their pick-ups, that's what they'd use to keep them from falling apart. I used a paintbrush to do all of the grooves first, and I painted this bottom half on Wednesday.

Looks pretty good huh? Well, you can see how high up it is to do the top half by the height of the ladder.

But nothing to worry about, scaffolding man, who is now ladder man, (my Dad) came over to give me a false sense of security by holding the ladder while I painted the top half. It worked. He did say he'd catch me on the bounce. Which means I'm gonna hit the ground first....geesh. Sorry about the butt shot. We put the roller pan on top of the green ladder so I could roll the wood, after I brushed in the grooves.

Mom brought dinner over, and when she said it was time to get back to work, Dad suggested she paint this! Good thinking Dad. (I'll show you what "this" is later. It'd be easier to show you in pics when it's finished, rather than try to describe)

When I was climbing that green ladder, I was a bit nervous. It's the tallest 'regular' ladder we have and this side of the yard has a huge slant to it. Plus it's still a bit soft as the grass hasn't completely come through yet. At least it isn't the mud bog it was a month ago.

That green ladder was nuthin! Nuthin I tell ya!

And yes I was a bit nervous....

and when I was painting this part I was flat out scared! I was.

When I painted the section right before this one, I looked down. Mistake. Do NOT look down. So when I got to this part, I knew it was higher than the section before, when I looked down. I did not look down here, but I stopped when I had a few more steps to go and said, "I gotta come down I can't do this." Dad said, "OK, I'll do it." Me. "You are not doing it, you wanna wrench your knees even worse." (he just had knee replacement surgery in December and is going to therapy for the other knee) So I stood there a minute, got my wits about me, and climbed on up. And I ended up painting it all with a brush because I was climbing up and down just to reach the green ladder with the pan on it.

And viola', it's done!!!! YEEEAAAAA~I have been dreading doing this all summer.

But now, the wood is ready for the weather. Good thing too because I didn't even have everything put away when the rains came.

Cindy Bee

Yard work - done - finally - sort of!

After several tri-axle loads of stone (#2 and #52 specifically - I never knew rocks were numbered until now)

And us picking up rocks

and more rocks,

and more rocks....for weeks.

43 bales of straw

400 pounds, give or take, of grass seed, and fertilizer,

and hours of back hoe time from backhoe man

What used to look like this

now looks like this.

we have two rock walls,

extending from the retaining walls by the walk out basement (all of those rocks/boulders were picked up on our property by the way)

The entire walk-out area is graveled. We have a landscaping plan that will be done later.

We used an old piece of sandstone, original to one of the previous homes on the property, for the entry step.

We have a gravel driveway leading from the driveway, to the walk out basement.

The front yard is mostly seeded and covered in straw now.

The South east side of the property before

is now seeded and covered in straw (did I mention 43 bales of straw being laid down in 100 degree temps. )

And these areas used to be big holes, right up against the house. We would worry because those holes were by the basement wall and when it would rain they would fill up with water. In the winter that water would freeze. We were afraid water would seep through the basement or the thawing and freezing in winter time would crack the basement wall. Those holes are now filled in.

The west side yard - seeded (and now covered in straw)

The back yard was left like this

after the well was put in the ground.

Now it looks like this.

And what started it all....the East side of the garage

is now seeded and grass is coming up. And the trees are gone.

Some day we plan on putting evergreens back where the other trees were, but for now, we're letting grass grow....everywhere.

If anyone wants to spend a LOT of time watering grass, come one over!

Cindy